After a 30-minute discussion of policy, I asked Pawlenty: "Do you trust Mitt Romney?"

"Can I jump back to China for a second?"

We laughed, I accused him of stalling, and he talked for two minutes about the need to get tough with China on trade. "I'm for free trade, but I'm not for being a chump."

...

"When you look at his record," I asked, "what do you see that makes you say, 'I need to be president and not that guy?'?"

"I've said I'm going to abide by Reagan's 11th commandment and not whack other Republicans or at least not be the first one to whack them. I do remind people I'm an old hockey player, and if elbows start getting thrown, I'm not averse to getting in the corner and start throwing some myself. But we're not going to start that process."

So, sports metaphor aside, Pawlenty's position here is that he's just fine with the idea of negative campaigning, but he won't be the person who pays the price for starting the big-time attacks on Romney.

Hayes concludes: "When Pawlenty announced, a headline in Time magazine asked: 'Is He Too Nice for His Own Good?' And so far, the answer is yes."